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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, March 2, 2011) - Indonesian police have confirmed that four police officers are among a group of seven men who allegedly raped and tortured a 15-year-old girl in Papua.

The chief of the Biak Numfor police, Rickho Taruna Mauruh, says the seven suspects had been arrested and faced up to five years jail under the 2002 Child Protection Law.

He says the officers involved in the rape would be sacked for embarrassing the police.

[PIR editor’s note: Lincoln Tribune reports the girl was locked in a room for several days and gang raped until she passed out. She was beaten when she resisted. Papua is a province of Indonesia situated west of New Guinea.]

The victim’s mother says she hopes the men face the maximum penalty under the law because they had destroyed her daughter’s future.

By Shalveen Chand SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, March 2, 2011) – In Fiji, visitor arrivals in 2010 reached a record high at 631,868, 16.5 percent higher than in 2009, according to the Bureau of Statistics.

The bureau, in its official statement, also noted a big change in the numbers coming for holidays. It accounted as 74.8 percent of the total visitor arrivals for Fiji in 2010 were people arriving for holiday purposes.

Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Pacific Islands and Continental Europe were Fiji's top five international visitor generating markets.

These five markets accounted for 85 percent of the total international visitor arrivals for 2010.

Australia continues to be the primary source of growth in arrivals to Fiji, with arrivals increasing by 28 percent to 318,185 people from Australia visiting Fiji last year.

Marianas HAGATNA Guam (Marianas Business Journal, Feb. 28, 2011) – Waterman Steamship Corp., the principal subsidiary of International Ship holding Corp., announced on Feb. 17, it has added a vessel service to Guam to its "scheduled U.S.-flag pure car/truck carrier vessel service between Japan, Korea and U.S. West Coast ports."

The MV Green Point, the first Waterman vessel to enter Apra Harbor, will depart Southern California late February arriving in Guam mid-March.

Waterman specializes in various types of freight transportation. An industry source told the Journal Waterman has clients on Guam. "Their vessels will be going regularly, however not as frequently as Horizon or Matson. Their customer base is contract or project type and in particular, those shippers who require roll on, roll off vessel service."

By Tevita Motulalo NUKUALOFA, Tonga (Taimi Media Network, March 1, 2011) – Crown Prince Tupouto’a Lavaka, who is Tonga’s High Commissioner to Australia and 9 other countries, met members of Parliament for the first time last week discussing core challenges the mission is facing.

Part of the issues discussed included extreme lack of resources where there is a shortage of staff pay and overwhelming workloads. The Canberra mission is struggling financially to fulfill operational obligations.

Prime Minister Lord Tu‘ivakano, who also retains the Foreign Affairs portfolio, says there is a pending review of the policies and resources allocated to the mission, focusing on provisions from the previous government.

"It has to be identified if the policies and budget allocations match, and whether the spending is in line with the policies, especially if there is enough funding," he said.

By Godwin Ligo PORT VILA, Vanuatu (Vanuatu Daily Post, March 3, 2011) – In Vanuatu, over 144 kava plastic bottles are produced daily by a local businessman.

The bottled kava products goes into the local market but will eventually hit the regional markets.

Jack Berry from Tongoa, a former builder, is the man behind the idea of kava bottling.

"We started kava bottling in 2010 and have now expanded our market locally and looking at going regional later this year," Jack Berry told Daily Post.

The new kava bottling market is located at Rentepau on Efate. The owner and producer of Kava Bottling known as LAV Vanuatu Kava, said he intends to export to New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji in the near future.

"At the moment we have just enough to supply the local demand which is mainly Port Vila market. Later on we will supply our product to other centers in Vanuatu and then look at going...

By Julian Ryall Marianas HAGATNA Guam (Marianas Business Journal, Feb. 28, 2011) – All Nippon Airways (ANA)is soon to revolutionize air transportation within Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region after announcing the launch of nation's first low-cost carrier.

ANA and Hong Kong-based First Eastern Investment Group announced in Tokyo on Feb. 1 that they had finalized the details of their joint venture and would both be investing in the new airline, which will be based at Kansai International Airport.

The move is clearly in response to growing numbers of similar airlines appearing across the region from Malaysia's AirAsia X to Jetstar of Australia and Philippines-based Cebu Pacific Air - and the sharp growth in the...

By Verenaisi Raicola SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, March 2, 2011) - While some supermarkets in Suva have no sugar or are rationing what is sold to consumers the Sugar Ministry says the Fiji Sugar Corporation has enough supplies until the next import shipment arrives.

Sugar Ministry permanent secretary Lieutenant Colonel Manasa Vaniqi said FSC assured him that they had enough sugar in their bulk until the next shipment of 1,000 tons arrives from Thailand on March 10.

"After that there will be another 1,000 tons of sugar imported by March 20," he said.

Lt-Col Vaniqi said all local sugar was sold to Tate & Lyle and Fiji had been importing for local consumption for some years now.

He said FSC had assured his ministry that supplies for bigger merchants was rationed but there would be no shortage of sugar. However, in the meantime, consumers have been told by several supermarkets that they can only purchase one kilogram of...

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.